Up fairly early and Bob went off to pick up the hire car from Hertz for our trip to Napa. Two friends from the ship, Maureen and Mick, were coming with us. It was a lovely day again. Bright sunshine, warm and no wind. T shirt weather without being hot.

We headed off across the Golden Gate Bridge which was spectacular in the morning sunshine. Past Sausalito and into the hills and up to the Russian River area of Napa for our first call at the Iron Horse winery near Sebastopol. We first discovered Iron Horse back in 1990 when we had dinner at a very upmarket restaurant in Manhattan Beach called St. Estephe. A friend ordered a bottle of their chardonnay with dinner that turned into four bottles and a memorable night. Over the next twenty years we looked for Iron Horse everywhere and rarely found it, never outside of the U.S. In 2012 when we visited Napa we decided to visit the winery and were amazed to discover that it was extremely prestigious and in fact specialised in champagnes as well as chardonnays and had supplied special champagnes for Queen Elisabeth's visit to Washington, the Gorbachov meetings to end the Cold War, Clinton's second victory and a host of other events. In fact the recent climbers who freeclimbed El Capitano celebrated at the top with a bottle of one of their champagnes. We were amazed and had no idea that all those years ago we had picked so very well. Damn it as it is now pretty expensive.

Anyway, we had a tasting of all of their champagnes. It costs $20 but they deduct that if you buy. We tasted about 8 I think and they were all really good. Very dry for American champagne. We ended up buying a 6 bottle mixed case of our favourite chardonnay and the zero additive champagne which is fabulous. Such a beautiful setting too and a lovely little place.

Next we visited Beringer which is a much bigger name on the agenda and a fabulously beautiful winery with wonderful gardens as well as the vineyards. Had a good visit there. We intended to eat lunch but their restaurant was closed midweek so we also didn't taste as we were pretty hungry by then and drinking another flight of wines didn't seem the best idea. Had a good look around though.

Beringer was just outside St Helena, one of the quaintest of the valley townships, full of very tasteful and interesting shops. We found a great café there and had lunch. Massive sandwiches which we struggled to conquer.

Then south again to the Robert Mondavi winery. Another beautiful, large estate. The Napa area is full of vineyards, some tiny, some huge but the landscape is very like Tuscany but with far more trees. A lovely area that we are always sad to leave and could easily spend a couple of weeks in.

During the day we managed to speak to Daisy, now back in Paris and also to Lucy who we caught at midnight her time so we could wish her a happy birthday for tomorrow. That was nice. Also rang Harriet in Florida to firm up arrangements to see her in June.

Our final stop was at a Walmart Supercentre where we bought a few more art supplies amongst other things. Got some nice little gifts today in Napa.

Drove home over the double span Bay bridge. A very good day and a wonderful stay in San Francisco. Probably the best stay I've had here in maybe 5 visits. The weather was just perfect. Not foggy. Not rainy. Not too hot…..

Stood out on the little secret front balcony for the sailaway and saw the city disappear. We sailed under the Golden Gate and headed out before turning south.

Two sea days lie ahead and then Cabo San Lucas in Baja Mexico.